Law Brakes Her Ride

No Sidewalk

Street Use Banned

NEWPORT NEWS — The wide metal ramp clamped over the front steps of Betty and Roy Palmer's brick house slopes to a stop just a few feet from the curb at 55 Ash Ave.

That's where the trouble starts.

Virginia law forbids driving an electric wheelchair in a public street. Ash Avenue, a manicured, tree-lined neighborhood, lacks sidewalks.

Betty Palmer, 62, has severely limited mobility as a result of a 1974 car accident and arthritis. She bought a battery-powered, three-wheel scooter in February, but she cannot use it to scuttle around the corner to her volunteer job only a few blocks away at Riverside Rehabilitation Institute.

"She's a prisoner in her own home," said her husband, 61, who has suffered two heart attacks and cannot push her wheelchair.

"They say she can't drive it in the street, and you'll notice, there's no such thing as a sidewalk," he said.

For almost two months, Palmer said, he has been bumping through the maze of municipal government, trying to find a way to get his wife to work once a week without running outside the law.

"I call Mr. Right or Mr. Wrong, or Mr. Tomorrow or Mr. Last Week," he said in disgust.

On Tuesday, Assistant City Manager William P. Mitchell Jr. visited the Palmers, but he declined Mr. Palmer's challenge to ride the scooter to the rehabilitation institute without entering the street.

Mitchell said city officials will consider whether the Palmers' plight warrants special consideration for hastening construction of sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Otherwise, sidewalks aren't scheduled there before 1998, he said.

Handicapped residents of Hampton and Newport News have complained for several years about the lack of sidewalks.

They say this means handicapped people without cars or vans are kept unnecessarily dependent or immobile.

Last year a Hampton man received a ticket for driving his motorized wheelchair on a street after ignoring repeated warnings.

Officials in both cities say an alternative is the Pentran Handi-Ride program.

But advocates for the handicapped note that this service requires 24 hours' advance notice and costs $1.50 per round trip.

The Palmers' problems began the day they bought the scooter, a black metal vehicle resembling a tricycle with a burgundy seat, wire basket and top speed of 10 mph.

While Mr. Palmer was out in the street testing the machine, he said, a policeman drove up and warned him that driving the scooter in the street violated state law.

Mr. Palmer said when he pointed out there were no sidewalks, the policeman simply reiterated the warning and told him that he could receive a ticket next time.

Mr. Palmer said he stored the scooter in his backyard tin shed and began his trip through the bureaucracy.

At first, he contacted the Police Department to gain permission for his wife to drive along the side of the street, close to the curb.

After talking to several officers, Mr. Palmer said he only got frustrated.

Although the state law doesn't require the handicapped to register and license an electric wheelchair, it does limit the vehicles to sidewalks or other non-public lanes, such as driveways or parking lots, according to police spokesman Sgt. Mike Brewer.

Brewer said it is impossible for officers to ignore a state law, adding that this one is designed to protect the wheelchair operator. He said Mrs. Palmer's scooter "sits so low that most vehicles probably could not see it."

Mr. Palmer said he then telephoned Mayor Jessie Rattley and talked to her secretary five to seven times, but never the mayor herself.

Instead, two Social Services workers visited. Mr. Palmer said they were nice but didn't offer much practical help.

Mr. Palmer said the couple bought a Plymouth van for longer trips, equipped with gears for a handicapped driver and space for a wheelchair. But the vehicle constantly broke down, and Mr. Palmer said now his wife is scared to drive it. "We want sidewalks, and we can't get sidewalks," he said. "We want Chrysler to do something about that van so we can go somewhere. We're hogtied."